Nursery Policies

My child had a temperature last night but it went down this morning so DH dropped her off to nursery with a bottle of Calpol to be administered by staff in case it rose again.

They asked DH if it was prescribed by the doctor or bought. He said it was bought.

A few hours later, the nursery staff range me to say her temperature had risen but they couldn't administer the Calpol as it wasn't prescribed. I said it WAS prescribed - the doctor gave prescribed it a few weeks ago when she had chicken pox.

They said that's not the info they had received from daddy so they couldn't administer and I had to come and collect her. I said that daddy wouldn't know as she's with me when she's not at nursery but they said they HAD to take the word of whoever drops her off (even if the person who drops her off is not the person with the correct info).

AIBU to think this is madness? I'm obviously more than happy to take time off from work and collect her from nursery if she really does need to be at home but if DH had said the Calpol was prescribed, they would have administered it, her temperature would have gone down and she would not have had to be dragged away from nursery in tears.

She loves her 2 days a week at nursery and it is really not nice to see your child upset completely unnecessarily IMHO. What do others think?

Our nursery had a Calpol policy - they'd administer once for a mild temperature, so long as they had the Calpol form signed by a parent, but if the temperature stayed up, or went back up, child went home.

This particular bottle may have been prescribed for OP's DD, but not for this particular illness, so IMHO it wouldn't count as prescribed here anyway.

Well our nursery must be unusual as they will administer Calpol (although they expect you to then collect), it doesn't have to be prescribed, and also apply sunscreen!

OP, YANBU as if we all took such a cautious approach to illness as some posters are suggesting, workplaces up and down the land would be empty and I imagine a number of working mums (and a few dads) would lose their jobs.

Our policy has recently changed in that we can administer unprescribed Calpol providing a parent has signed a medicine form and it will only be administered minimum of 4 hours after the child has arrived at nursery. In my experience 9 times out of 10 the child has to go home anyway as they are unwell and nursery is not the best place for an ill child.

We also put suncream on but also have to have a signed form as a lot of our children have their own cream,

This is partly why I chose my cm rather then the nurseries round here. My cm will give dd calpol if I ask her to, and if I give her the bottle in the morning, none of the nurseries would do that. Cm even took dd when she had chicken pox, because all 3 children she looks after had it at the same time (because they all caught it from the toddler group they go to), so they all went and she stayed at home with 3 poxy toddlers for a week (apart from meeting up with her cm friend who also had poxy children with her).

OP I would be annoyed with that policy too, I can understand a policy that says all children will be sent home if they need calpol, or a policy about only administering prescribed medication, but not this policy of only believing the parent who drops off even if they're wrong.

Because you want somewhere with few clear rules that stick to them? You want nurseries with sensible rules that run to them consistently, which it sounds this place does. You just didn't like it when it did!

I work in a preschool and I think your nursery has done the right thing. I think you were in the wrong to be honest to expect your DH to say it was prescribed Calpol when in fact it wasn't, at least not for her current condition. I wouldn't give a feverish child calpol (or anything else) unless it was prescribed, in which case it would have a label on the bottle showing dosage etc, the parent would also need to complete a form showing details of the condition, dosage etc. I think really if they are poorly enough to need pain relief during the day they should be at home. I appreciate it's a pain especially for working parents but there you are.

It seams a waste of a GPs time to me to prescribe calpol- yes if course parents should take their child to drs to get checked out if needed but why shouldn't nursery give calpol to a teething baby? I want my nursery to ring me or DH if DS is ill and needs to be at home but if his teething is stopping him nap then I'm more than happy for them to give him calpol.

Sounds like a standard nursery policy. DS's nursery won't give any medicine, including Calpol or generic alternative, without it being prescribed for that child and the parents filling in forms about the medicine. They also won't take the child into the nursery until they've been on the medicine for 48 hrs - not sure if that's in case of allergic reactions, or to give the child a chance to start getting better at home.

Also, specifically re. Calpol, they refuse to give any at all until the child's been at nursery for at least 4 hrs, to avoid any accidental overdosing, and if the Calpol's had to be given because the child has a temperature, they'll call up the parent and ask them to come and take the child home, on the grounds that a child ill with a temperature is too ill for nursery. I agree it's a PITA if you've got work and your child doesn't seem to bad, but this is as much to try and prevent ill kids infecting the rest of the kids in the nursery as anything else.

Given that the Calpol in your case had no pharmacy sticker on the bottle, and your DH saying it wasn't prescibed originally, I can understand the nursery treating it as if it's not prescribed.

Incidentally, Zzzzmarchhare, the GP's at my local surgery seem happy to hand out prescriptions for Calpol (or generic alternative) like candy. Whenever I've taken DS in with a temperature (he has always had other worrying symptoms too, not just a temperature), they've offered me a prescription for Calpol without me saying a word about wanting any.

And it's GPs prescribing things like that like candy which is costing the NHS a fortune! Unless parents really can't afford it or they need a much bigger dose than normal then parents should just be told to go and buy it.

If DD has a temp I dose her up and if she is fine in herself, I still send her to preschool. Like a lot of places, the preschool won't administer medication anyway and they would call if her temperature rose again.

Having raised the issue of temperatures, the preschool actually told us that it was fine to send them in if they seemed Ok and didn't have any other symptoms of anything. The only time you are asked to keep the DCs at home is for D&V and something like Chicken Pox.

I send mine with calpol,no issues with nursery.They ring and ask me befire they give it him as procedure and are quite happy to do it.Sometimes they have a temp due to teething so i agree its fine for them to give calpol x

If your child has a temp you should pick them up, not expect the nursery to dose them with calpol. The calpol was prescribed for chicken pox, not a random temp a few weeks later.

It's also incredibly unfair to dose your child with calpol when they are ill and send them to nursery or to send them after a temp the night before, having been in the situation of looking after a child in a nursery whose calpol has worn off and parent 'on their way' four hours later from working across the road I can tell you it's not bloody nice for all involved and all the child wants is their parent! It can completely disrupt a day and it happens too often.

Why would you need a Dr to tell you what dosage of calpol to give? It's written right there on the bottle?

Just because a child has a temperature over night, they might not be even remotely ill the next day. And if DS is fine with a dose of calpol, and nursery are happy to give him any more if he needs it, then I don't see the problem. The whole world does not grind to a halt because someone has a sniffle. I do not object at all to picking up DS, or taking the day off when he really is poorly. But if he's running around and playing but needs calpol or ibuprofen to manage teething pain or the tail end of a virus etc, then both me and his nursery are fine with it.

Because not all children can take calpol or nurofen. And some low weight chdren might need a lower dose than tbe acerage dose for their age. Ican understand why for safety reasons they might want a drs or pharmacy label on all medicines the dispense so they are not liable for giving wrong dose.